De Havilland DH-106 Comet 3/4 Moulds in 1:400

Updated: June 2016

Ah the Comet - such a beauty but also such a waste. The tribulations of the Comet 1 are well known but by the mid 50s its failings were understood and the lengthened and improved Comet 3 was in testing (only one airworthy plane was produced). Further improved and stretched by 5.64m over the original Comet 1, with some extra fuel capacity it became the Comet 4. That entered service on 30th September 1958 with BOAC, giving the flag carrier a very short lead in transatlantic operations. Less than a year later BOAC began to shift its Comet 4s from transatlantic services in favour of new 707s.

The Comet 4 was little competition for 707s and DC-8s but it was really a product of an earlier age. Its amazing to think that passenger numbers had risen so sharply in the 50s that the original Comet seated only 36-44 passengers but by the end of the decade 707-320s were jamming in close to 200. The graceful Comet 4 only seated 74-81 passengers in comparison. Still the type saw good service with no less than 45 of 73 made ending their careers at Dan Air.

BOAC took 19 original Comet 4s whilst BEA took 18 Comet 4Bs (a 2m longer version with shorter wings) whilst 23 of the ultimate version the 4C were built. The 4C had the 4B fuselage and the 4's wings. Typically the 4B didn't have the wing pinion tanks. The single comet 3 actually had both types of wing at different points in its career as a test plane.

An interesting range of airlines flew Comets especially as they were leased out from the BOAC fleet to former colonies or passed to charter operators.

Here's how the Comet 4 looked:

Here's the Comet 4B and 4C:

Aeroclassics Mould (2006) - Used 22 times

Unsurprisingly Aeroclassics are the only manufacturer that has tried to make a Comet in 1:400 scale and they took the wise decision to try and make a single mould that they could use to represent all the Comet 4 versions despite the length differences. Because of that the Aeroclassics Comet range has a number of issues brought about by this one size fits all approach, but as these compromises were necessary for for the company to produce a 1:400 Comet it is hard to be too critical. The fuselage appears to be modeled on the Comet 3/4 which was 33.99m long. The wing has the span of the Comet 3/4/4C - 35m in real life - but initially appeared without the pinion tanks so the Comet 3 and 4B models appeared first. The real wingspan of the Comet 4B was just under 33m and it also had wing fences which don't appear on the models other than a 2D printing. Once the 3 and 4Bs were out of the way the wing moulding was adapted to include the pinion tanks meaning the Comet 4 and 4Cs had an accurate wing.

Summarising, the Comet 4 models are pretty accurate dimensionally speaking, the Comet 3 is missing the wing fence but is the correct dimensions, the Comet 4B has shorter fuselage and bigger wingspan than it ought to have (and lacks the wing fence) whilst the Comet 4C has accurate wings but too short a fuselage.

The breakdown of releases is as follows:

Comet 3: 1 (BEA)

Comet 4: 9 (Aerolineas Argentinas, BOAC and BOAC Hybrids x6, MSA x2)

Comet 4B: 8 (BEA x2, BEA Airtours, Channel , Dan Air x2, Olympic x2)

Comet 4C: 4 (MEA, Mexicana x3)

The natural metal finish on the Comet 3 is apparently incorrect and should not be polished but instead a dull metallic colour.